US health officials have confirmed a human case of bird flu in a patient that had no immediately known animal exposure.
The patient, in the state of Missouri, was treated in hospital and has since recovered, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
It is the 14th human case of bird flu in the US in 2024 and the first without a known occupational exposure to infected animals, according to the CDC.
Then why does bird flu have more invasive symptoms and a higher mortality rate compared to human influenza’s? I was taught by a virologist who’s been around the block many times and got her PhD in the USSR. She was adamant that a parasite never wants to kill it’s host, as this results in no longer being able to reproduce in the host and shortens it’s reproduction time in future host.
Most viral offspring are not capable of infection, as without mutations, viruses would not be able to reproduce effectively and could not adapt to changing environments. To disprove a hypothesis simply means one aspect of the statement is incorrect. So while the cause and effect occurs, the explanation for why wasn’t dialed. Or at least, this would be my guess for how it could have been disproven.